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Secrets of Abundant Living

THE SECR= ET OF

STEWARDS= HIP

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Jeremiah 32:6-15

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In our giving, we “pay it forward”

for God’s Kingdom.

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

November 18, 2007=

Several men in the locker room of a private ex= ercise club were talking when a cell phone on the bench started to ring. Without hesitation one of the men = picked it up and answered it. The woman on the other end immediately began to talk, “Honey, I’m at the mall, and I saw the most beautiful mink coat= . It is absolutely gorgeous. Can I= buy it? It’s only $2,500.&#= 8221;

The man answered, “Sure, sweetheart, if you like it that much.”=

“Thank you,̶= 1; the woman said. “Oh, I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership today, and= the new models are in. I saw one I really liked. I spoke with a salesman, and he offered me a really good deal on one.”

“How much?”= ; the man asked.

“Only $60,000!&#= 8221; she said.

“Well, OK,”= ; he said, “but for that price I want all the options.”

“Great!” t= he woman replied. “And honey, just one more thing. You know the house we looked at la= st year? The one with the ocean = view and the pool and the English garden? Well, it came back on the market, and I talked to a real estate agent this morning, and they are only asking $750,000 for it.”

“That sounds rea= sonable. Call the agent and offer $720,000.= But if you like it that much, go o= n up to $750,000 if you need to,” the man said.

The woman squealed with delight and said, “Thank you so much. I’ll see you later. I love you!” And she hung up.=

The man closed the fla= p on the phone, held it up in the air, and said, “Anybody know who this ce= ll phone belongs to?”[1]

Most of us are happy to spend someone else’s money; that’s no problem. That’s fun. But when it comes to spending our = own hard-earned living, that’s something we take very seriously. We want to get the most out of our money.

Today I want to share = with you a secret that will make you just as happy as spending someone else̵= 7;s money. It’s the secret = of spending our own money in a Godly way, and if you learn the secret, then yo= ur money can bring you more satisfaction and fulfillment than any material thi= ng ever could. It’s called= the secret of stewardship.

Most of the time, when= we talk about stewardship, we talk about paying back—giving back in gratitude for all we have received—and that’s a good way to thi= nk about what we give. We talked= about gratitude last week. But toda= y I want to challenge you to think of your stewardship in another way. Think of paying forward. Think of giving in hope—hope for the future, giving in anticipation of what Go= d is going to do with our money. T= hat is an exciting prospect!

A few years ago, there= was a movie called “Pay It Forward.”= In the movie, a teacher gives his seventh grade social studies class= an assignment that will last the entire year. The assignment is to think of an idea that will make the world a better place and to put it into action. The class groans and complains, bu= t the teacher challenges them to be creative and to see the possibilities and to = do something that makes a difference.

One little guy named T= revor takes the idea immediately to heart, and on the way home from school that d= ay, he invites a homeless man to come stay in his garage. When Trevor’s mother gets ho= me after working late, she doesn’t notice the man sleeping in the garage, and the next morning he almost scares her to death.

Trevor has already beg= un developing this idea of “paying it forward.” As he explains it to his class, “Pay It Forward” means doing something big—a large favor,= a huge help—for a stranger, completely without strings attached, except that the recipient of the favor has to promise to do some big thing for thr= ee more people, and so on. Multi= plying exponentially by three’s, these good deeds could touch thousands of people in a very short time.[2]

That’s the secre= t of stewardship. By doing somethi= ng good for somebody else, that may empower them to do something good for a few more people, and then they pass it on to others. Before long, you are making a real difference in the world. This= has to do with a lot more than just money; it’s a lifestyle. “Pay It Forward” is how= the Kingdom of God works. I remember a parable Jesus told ab= out a mustard seed. He said, “= ;The kingdom of heaven is like a mustar= d seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the see= ds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so t= hat the birds of the air come and make their nest in its branches.”= = [3]

That’s how it wo= rks with the mustard seed, with the Kingdom of heaven, and with our stewardship. When we pay it f= orward by investing ourselves in God’s agenda, he grants us success, which brings more investment, which brings more success, and so on. As the homeless man explained to Trevor’s mother in the movie, “It gets really big really fast.”

That’s what we’re all about in our stewardship.&= nbsp; We are part of something big and significant and important when we g= ive to the ministry. We’re = not just raising money here; we’re raising faith. We’re making disciples for J= esus Christ. We’re not just = paying the bills at Hot Springs; we’re buil= ding the Kingdom of God!

It takes three things = to “Pay It Forward” for God. The first thing it takes is FAITH. That is the first thing TrevorR= 17;s teacher says about his idea in class, that it assumes faith in the goodness= of people, that they will actually do three good deeds in return for one.

If any human organizat= ion is based on faith, it ought to be the church. To do ministry in our world, we hav= e to have faith—faith in our church leaders, faith in our program, faith t= hat our vision is God’s vision for this church, and above all, faith in G= od. We have to trust him. We have to depend on him to carry = us through the struggle to victory. We have to cast the total weight of our burdens on him, and know that we will = be more than just OK. We’l= l be great!

John Casey tells about= an old man named Dudley who was having his = 75^th birthday, and a local pilot offered to take him on a ride in his antique plane. Dudley accepted the invitation, and for about half an hour, Dudley was up in the air over his little town in West Virginia<= /st1:place>. When the ride was over, one of Dudley’s friends asked him, “Were you scared, Dudley?”

Dudl= ey hesitated, then he confessed, “Well, no, I wasn’t scared, but then I never put my = full weight down.”[4]

We can always put our = full weight down on God, no matter what burden we are carrying. We can have faith in God, and beca= use we have faith in God, then we can have faith in the future of his church. Our best days are ahead of us. We can step into the future with confidence, because we have faith.

That’s what allo= wed Jeremiah to make this real estate deal we read about in our Scripture lesson this morning. This text doesn’t make any sense unless you understand the time and place of th= is purchase. When Jeremiah made = this deal, the Babylonian armies were camped outside the walls of Jerusalem. They were under siege. Anathoth was just outside of the c= ity of Jerusalem, in an area that was occupied by Babylonian troops. As a symbolic action, Jeremiah bou= ght the piece of property from his cousin.&nbs= p; In that act, he made a great statement of faith: “Houses and f= ields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”[5] Everything would one day be back to normal. By faith Jeremiah could see the vis= ion, so he acted to “pay it forward.” He had faith in the future of Israel.=

Do you have faith in o= ur future at First United Methodist Church? Then you’ll want to indicate= that in an act of commitment this morning.

The second thing it ta= kes to pay it forward is COURAGE. It took courage for a little seven= th grade boy to stand up in front of his class and tell them about his idea to change the world. It took eve= n more courage to invite a homeless man into his home. In the same way, Christian steward= s must have courage to make the commitment of financial support to God’s ministry. This is not somebody else’s money you’re dealing with here (unless you consider that= it all ultimately belongs to God). Investing in the church is putting your life on the line in a practi= cal way.

Like Jeremiah, we need courage to invest, to realize that it does all belong to God, and that the spiritual things in life really are more important than the material. Putting that idea into action turn= s the world upside down. That’= ;s how we make a difference.

One man who did that w= as Millard Fuller, the founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International. Habitat grew from building one hou= se over thirty years ago in Americus, Georgia, = to 225,000 homes for people in 90 countries. But the success of Habitat for Humanity rests on an act of spiritual courage by Millard Fuller and his wife Linda.

Millard Fuller came fr= om humble beginnings in Alabama, was educat= ed at Auburn University and the University of Alabama Law School, and had made his first million by= the age of 29 with a marketing firm. But in the process of making money, he developed health problems, his marriage failed, and he lost his connection with God. So in the early 1970’s, he w= ent through a period of soul-searching that had dramatic results. He reconciled with Linda, recommit= ted his life to Christ, and then, he and Linda completely sold off their assets and dedicated their lives to helping the poor.= Habitat for Humanity was born out of that act of courage. Today they are one of the top home= -building businesses in the world—all for the poor! How’s that for making a difference?

Maybe you won’t = make the impact that the Fullers have on hundreds of thousands of lives. But if you make the investment of stewardship to the best of your ability right here and right now, I’ll guarantee you will make a difference, and making that step of courage will make a difference in y= ou.

Paying it forward takes faith, courage, and finally HOPE.<= /b> We are willing to be good stewards= of the gifts God has given us because we know that the ultimate victory is his. When the dust of human h= istory clears, it will be God and his faithful people who will be the winners. Contrary to all appearances, this = is the truth, and we believe it.

If you pay too much attention to your circumstances, you can develop an attitude of pessimism a= nd despair. Focusing on the prob= lems in life can kill you. Several= years ago I heard a story about a railroad employee in Russia who accidentally locked himself in a refrigerator car. He yelled, he screamed, he beat on the door, and after a while he realized he could not escape. So he resig= ned himself to his fate. As he fe= lt his body becoming numb, he took a pencil out of his pocket and recorded his last moments: “I am becoming colder…slowly freezing…half asleep…these may be my last words…”

When the car was final= ly opened they found the man dead. However, what the employee didn’t know was that the refrigeration unit on the railroad car was out of order. The temperature inside the car was only 56 degrees, exactly what it was outside. There were even air = vents in the car. There was absolut= ely no physical reason for his death at all. He was a victim of his own hopelessness. He believed himself to death!=

I’d much rather believe myself to life, wouldn’t you? That’s what Christian stewar= ds do. Despite the problems and obstacles= that confront us, we never lose hope. We know the end of the story, and we can act on that knowledge.

For poor Jeremiah, everything was wrong about his investment.= At the time, he was under house arrest in the king’s court for continuing to tell Jerusalem that they were going to be destroyed. The king of J= udah was a foolish, pathetic puppet of the Babylonians. The Babylonian troops had already = laid siege to Jerusalem, and the destruction of= Zion was imminent= . But Jeremiah refused to freeze. He stepped out and made a profound symbolic act by buying land in the hope that God would one day restore his people. And God did.

As you look around at = your circumstances today, they are not as bad as Jeremiah’s. But there are uncertainties everywhere. We are in a war, = and we don’t know how long it will last or how devastating it might eventual= ly be. The economy is unstable, = and many people have lost significant value in their investments or lost their = jobs or are threatened by cutbacks. Gas is $3.00 a gallon. Your perso= nal financial situation may be worse today than it was a year ago. I understand all that.<= /span>

Now is the best time to decide what is truly important and to make our commitment to God. Don’t you know he’s go= ing to take care of you? He has neve= r yet abandoned his faithful people, and I don’t believe he will start in 2008. That’s our hope. That is why we pay it forward. That’s the secret of steward= ship. Amen!

Our faith is built on powerful symbols—the water of baptism, the bread and wine of communio= n, the empty cross of the Easter faith. You hold in your hands another powerful symbol of our faith. This commitment card symbolizes the partnership we have with God in doing his ministry in the world. This is a high and holy moment of dedication on our part. It is= an opportunity we have to respond to the love God has shown us in so many ways= .

We normally end the se= rvice with a benediction or a blessing, but today we will simply leave in silence after you make your commitment. The= last word we say is always “Amen,” which means “so let it be.” Today your act of dedication at the altar is your way of saying your own “amen.”<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> “So let it be” between= you and God as you respond in faith today.